


Clarity

by robinasnyder



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Castration, Cyborg!Kylo Ren, Emperor Hux, Hurt/Comfort, Kylux Secret Santa 2016, M/M, body horror?, no graphic violence, only the fall out of past off screen violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 18:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9083773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robinasnyder/pseuds/robinasnyder
Summary: Force Users are more likely to lose limbs to begin with. Kylo Ren lives and exceptionally dangerous life. That's fine because Hux is always going to want to put him back together. Not that Kylo Ren understands that. When he loses something important, he's reluctant to return home.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HumZbird](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=HumZbird).



It started before Hux was Emperor. The first cybernetic prosthetic was a false eye. Ren earned that when Starkiller blew up. Hux thought it was a fitting punishment for the stupidity that had nearly gotten them all killed and cost hundreds of thousands of lives and more money than any one man’s tantrum should have ever cost. 

They still got into fights about the eye. 

The second thing he lost was his left hand. Hux was still just a General. Ren kind of liked that one. It made him feel closer to his Grandfather. He told Hux as such. Hux told him to shut up and fuck him faster. Still, Ren noticed how Hux stroked the prosthetic skin later. He marveled at the technology that allowed Ren to be just as good of a Knight as he had been before. 

The third and fourth thing he lost were both his legs below the knees. He lost them fighting Snoke. He stepped into a burning gel by mistake. But instead of pulling himself out, he’d stay there and pretended he couldn’t get out. He allowed his legs to burn up for a chance that the gloating old man would get close. Then Ren killed him. Hux had dragged Ren out of the gel, but he didn’t see Ren again until after Ren learned how to use his new legs. That took eight months. 

What followed after was five years of Hux drawing Ren in for fucking and meetings, and then sending Ren out to maintain the Empire. And Kylo Ren liked it that way. He reported in with glee and did his best to keep contact if he couldn’t keep the time frame. He liked finishing early and coming back to his reward. Along the way he lost lots of parts and needed lots of replacements. But he always came back. 

And then one day he didn’t. 

* * *

Emperor Hux was coming up on his 42nd birthday. He woke up in the morning and could see the silver in his red. Kylo Ren liked to tease him about it, but Hux liked it. It made him look distinguished, like his father, except he was built like a whip. He hadn’t hit 40 and had all his weight go to his middle like his father had either. And that was something Hux could hold over his father. Soon he’d be able to hold the fact that he had heirs over his father’s head as well. Armitage Hux was a bastard. His children would be from a surrogate and because they were the Emperor’s children they wouldn’t be bullied for not being from wedlock. And his father couldn’t bitch about him being uninterested in females. 

Well, he could bitch. But he’d still have grandchildren, so he would probably bitch less. 

Hux was looking forward to his 42nd birthday. He’d even commissioned a few new pieces for his Knight, so that his prosthetics would be all cleaned up and either looking shiny and modern, or looking human. He didn’t want Ren’s appearance scaring the babies. And he was going to have his Knight standing at his side for the celebration. Hux had no special reason to feel so good about 42, except that he did. 

And he was looking forward to sharing that good mood with Ren. Ren always liked it when Hux felt like sharing a good mood. That generally meant excellent sex, which was good for them both. 

He tried not to be too terribly annoyed by the fact that Ren was three months late. Sometimes it happened. Well, it happened two or three times. But Ren normally responded to messages or left a message saying he’d gone quiet for safety. Or he’d send a message. But he hadn’t. He was just late. 

Hux wasn’t worried. Really. He wasn’t. 

He got dressed for the day. He was about to put on his circlet and head to work when the door slid open. It only did that for a select few people besides Hux. One of them was Ren. The other was Phasma. And she at least she knew not to barge in unless it was an emergency. 

“Kylo Ren has been located,” she said. Her tone was tense. She was his captain of the guard and kept him safe at all times. Ren wasn’t the only one with a prosthetic eye or prosthetic limbs. He just didn’t seem to take care of his as well as Phasma did.

“Is he on his way back?” Hux asked. He was trying to not sound like he cared. 

“No,” Phasma said. “I need you to record a message to send with my retrieval unit.” 

“Saying what?” Hux asked. His pulse picked up. Was Ren captured? 

“Telling the idiot to come home,” she said. “He was badly injured and is refusing to return.” 

“For fuck’s sake,” Hux muttered. He turned and accepted the data pad. He jabbed the record button. “Ren, get your ass home in time for my 42nd birthday.” He hit the stop record button and handed Phasma the datapad back. “Go,” he ordered her. 

Phasma didn’t say anything. She just turned and walked out. She’d get Ren home within the next cycle if Ren’s hidey hole was within range. Maybe even if it wasn’t. 

Hux tried to focus on getting ready for the day. He couldn’t help but be a little distracted. Exactly what could that idiot Ren be thinking?

* * *

It took two cycles before Ren came home. Hux wasn’t there to greet him. He got notified when Ren had been delivered to the medic. And then he just had to wait until he was notified that he could come visit. Hux attempted to not allow himself too much distraction. Ren was still alive and stubborn enough that he’d tried not to come home. That meant that he probably wasn’t bleeding to death. Hux just might need to commission new prosthetics for him. That was fine. The new ones had turned out well and the designer would love a new challenge. 

Hux was surprised how quickly he got the call to come down to medical. He hesitated for about ten minutes merely out of pride. Then he strode (not ran, strode) now to medical to see Ren. 

Ren was sitting up on the table with his back away from Hux. He’d had his prosthetics taken off to be analyzed. This was standard procedure. His legs were off, as was his prosthetic arm. Hux could see a prosthi-tech working on Ren’s mismatched legs. One of them was still the black carbon-fiber/durasteel Hux had originally commissioned for Ren. It looked like armor, but was also too skinny to wrap around a real leg. It also wasn’t as shiny or sleek as it used to be. It had grit all over it and was dented all over. The second leg had been a temporary replacement when Ren lost the other original prosthetic leg. Except Ren had kept it and just had the techs modify it. It was a simple, thin bar with a second knee joint. The foot they added at the bottom had improved his running and somehow the two combined allow Ren to make some amazing jumps he’d never been able to do before. 

Hux couldn’t see the other arm, but he knew that unless Ren had wrecked it, it looked like it had muscle and some kind of definition, but also looked like a droid arm. Ren had designed the look. Hux thought of thee tan, white and gold limbs he’d commissioned. They would look very handsome on Ren. Hux wasn’t going to let him argue himself out of wearing them. Hux’s offspring were going to feel safe with Ren, if Hux had to attach the limbs to Ren himself.

A large portion of his internal organs were prosthetics at this point. Hux had no expectation of seeing those. Even with the plating that allowed Prosthi-techs and doctors to get into Ren’s body, it was traumatizing whenever they had to get inside. Medicine was a special kind of bodily violence. A healing violence. The internal prosthetics would not be removed, but they would be examined. They’d be taken out only if they needed to be replaced. 

Ren’s only other external prosthetic was also partially internal. Ren had his spine reinforced after a near paralyzing accident five years back. It looked like a bronze spine, but also like it might be on a human size-droid, as it was much more angular than a real human spine. It allowed Ren his movement and added protection, a double value that Hux appreciated. Also, Hux found the aesthetic of the reinforced spin pleasing. He’d gotten the designer of the new prosthetics to match the bronze in a few places. His Ren would be a work of art once he got fitted for his new limbs.

Hux walked up behind Ren and ran a few fingers delicately up Ren’s reinforced spine. Ren shivered. The prosthetics allowed the user to feel just as well if not better than original limbs. They could be fined tuned to amazing sensitivity. Hux knew there was a group of people who cut themselves up to get prosthetics. He didn’t understand them. Ren tried hard to protect his body, but sometimes he just couldn’t. Life happened. Force users tended to lose parts anyway. Kylo Ren walked dark paths. He lived in constant danger. 

There was a momentary clench of Hux’s heart. Would it be insulting to send Phasma out to do Ren’s job and keep Ren as his guard? Certainly it was at least time for Ren to produce an heir or get an apprentice or something. Hux would remind him of that once this other stupidity was cleared up.

“You’re late,” Hux said shortly. 

He expected a short reply from Ren, something like “unavoidable” said in a voice so cold that it might as well be an ice wall. Ren liked to be dramatic like that. 

Instead, Ren shrugged. 

Ren wasn’t really talkative. Never really had been. Hux was the chatterer. When they were in bed, Hux babbled all the time. Ren always got a fond look on his face when he reduced Hux to that state. But it wasn’t like Hux didn’t always get reduced to that state. Still, even Ren normally used his words. 

“Ren, what’s the matter with you?” Hux hissed. He walked around Ren to face him. He noticed the way Ren flinched and curled his shoulders first. Then he saw the damage. 

Maybe Hux should have noticed that Ren didn’t have pants on. Normally that didn’t mean much, since the med techs had to work with Ren’s prosthetic legs. But Hux wished someone had thought to warn him before he got to see.

Hux couldn’t really call it castration because the area was absolutely charred. Hux wasn’t certain how Ren was even upright.

“Shit, why didn’t you call for help?” Hux shouted. Were the nerves completely deadened? How was Ren not screaming in pain? The Sith lived for pain, but Kylo Ren wasn’t Sith. And while he would brag that he could stand up under terrible torture, this was different. Hux had about beaten it into Ren’s head that he didn’t have to. At least, Hux thought he had.

Ren sneered. There was a pained expression on his face, but he wasn’t looking at Hux. He was looking beyond Hux, possibly at the floor. “Oh, now you care? Now that I’m lacking one of my two main functions?”

“Functions?” Hux asked, making his voice a little dead sounding. He didn’t know what Ren was on about, but he clearly had some funny idea going on in his head.

“What was it you called me the last time I was here? Your dirty little fuck machine?” The bitterness just dripped from every word. 

“That’s dirty talk, Ren,” Hux scoffed. 

“And what use do I have for you beyond this?” Ren suddenly shouted. 

It jarred Hux out of his train of thought. The expression on Ren’s face wasn’t anger or pain. It was fear. Somewhere along the years, Hux had made a grave miscalculation. 

“Ren,” Hux said in a quiet tone. It cut through the panic Ren was building himself into. 

It allowed Hux to approach and to hold Ren’s face in both his hands. He looked down at his black gloves against Ren’s pale skin. Hux quickly ripped his gloves off, letting them fall wherever. He laid his hands back on Ren’s face. 

Ren’s eyes were on him now. One was Ren’s beautiful natural brown. The other one didn’t even look human. The eye itself was a pale blue and the iris was a metallic brown. It looked fake. Contrasted against Ren’s skin it looked even worse. That ugly scar cut through Ren’s face. It added sadness to Ren’s face. Maybe Hux would replace it with something more human-like. 

“You are my only lover,” Hux said. 

“Not anymore,” Ren bit out. That bitterness was out. 

“Do you want a new dick?” Hux asked. 

“Oh please,” Ren scoffed. 

“I’m serious,” Hux said. “You know how sensitive and lifelike prosthetics can be. They can rewire your nerves, grow you new ones… If you want to continue to be my lover, we can get you a new dick. That’s the easy part. Hell, we can get you more than one. Do you want to be purple and glittery? Or how about red and glow-in-the-dark like your lightsaber? It literally doesn’t matter.” Although helping Ren pick new dicks kind of sounded fun. This wasn’t really the time to get into that though. 

Ren was looking exceptionally confused. 

Hux went up on his toes so he could reach Ren’s mouth a little easier. Hux rarely indulged in gentle kisses, but he knew this was one of those times. Ren’s emotions were all over the place. He needed the reassurance. 

“You are not my only lover because you are good at sex. You are my only lover because I will tolerate no other. No one else is as powerful, majestic or perfect as you. No one is as infuriating. No one cares about me the way you do…” He hesitated for a moment. Ren’s eyes were wide with shock. Hux really had miscalculated. Ren had no idea how important he was. 

“The birth mother will be inseminated in a few weeks. I would like you to come home and be my guard. Your Knights and Phasma can go out to the world. But I need you here. No one will make the children as safe… and I want them to see me happy.” 

“How would my being here make you happy?” Ren mumbled. He dropped his gaze. 

Hux let out an exasperated sigh. “I love you, you great idiot.”  
“Oh,” Ren said. Well, it seemed to have finally clicked in his brain. Hux was relieved. 

“Now,” Hux said. He dropped his hands and rested on Ren’s good arm and one of Ren’s knees. “I’m going to let the doctors work on your injury. Would you like me to get you a new dick?” 

“I’d kind of like to pick my own,” Ren said. 

Yep, he wanted the glowing red lightsaber dick. Hux would curse himself for putting the idea in Ren’s head. Except that Hux was looking forward to trying it out as well. 

“I’ll have them apply the equipment. We’ll make the dick interchangeable. Fair?” Hux asked. 

Ren looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he nodded yes. 

“Good,” Hux said. He gave Ren a quick kiss and then helped guide him to lay down. “I have work. I’ll come back and see you later.” 

“Have a good day, Emperor Hux,” Ren said. 

Hux felt relieved when he walked off the med floor. Ren would be okay. Okay as he could be anyway. Hux knew enough to know there would be more emotional fall out later. But he was would stay. He would stay with Hux and he was open to something new. It was a good sign.

**Author's Note:**

> Cyborg!Ren based somewhat on Leadlatte's "Collateral Damage" AU. ([Link](http://leadlatte.tumblr.com/post/138546180454/mismatched-mechanical-limbs-patches-of-scarred)). 
> 
> Written for the Kylux Secret Santa. Written for HumZBird and their prompt asking for Hurt/Comfort and anxiety.
> 
> Thanks to agoodflyting for helping me out!


End file.
